It's official: Somerville's only 4th year Mathematics (and related subjects) student with a First Class score this year has decided to become a priest. I'm not sure whether this says anything about us (his teachers).
Granted, the decision does solve the problem of finding cheap accommodation in Oxford (which is not a trivial feat), as free accommodation is apparently part of the deal.
The best student ever at my previous department decided to leave our discipline and enlist in the army. We were also uncertain how to make a connection between literary criticism and the military.
ReplyDeleteActually, a decent number of technically-inclined people end up becoming priests. It seems to be a relatively common phenomenon. I understand it if one joins a very scholarly sect (which are the main examples of which I am aware), as in many ways one is living like a graduate student---except with more praying and a change in which subjects one is studying. The Dominicans in Berkeley often get Masters or even PhDs in subjects like philosophy, occasionally publish scholar papers, and sometimes even join faculty.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I still hold out some hope of training younger, more annoying versions of myself. :)